Vancouver: Green and Sustainable City

Vancouver: Green and Sustainable City

Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson and Robert Gibson, Adjunct Professor and Sustainability Facilitator of City University of Hong Kong, at Asia Society Hong Kong Center on November 11, 2013.

HONG KONG, November 12, 2013 — Having a green and sustainable living environment is a common goal shared around the world, but the challenges are how to implement the appropriate measures while at the same time keep the economy growing. Vancouver, Canada, ranks as one of the most livable places in the world and its government continues to seek improvements to make it the greenest city in the world by 2020. Gregor Robertson, Mayor of Vancouver, was invited to join a luncheon discussion with J. Robert Gibson, Adjunct Professor and Sustainability Facilitator of City University of Hong Kong, to talk about what Hong Kong and other nearby cities can learn from Vancouver, and vice versa.

“Clean technology is a big industry in Vancouver now,” said Robertson, while the city witnessed proven financial return for building green buildings to increase energy efficiency, which is also a trend spreading in Asia. However, Hong Kong and the region are ahead of Vancouver in public transportation infrastructure that helps reduce the dependence on cars and thus energy consumption.

Minimizing waste was another key topic in the discussion. Hong Kong employs a three-bin recycling system that asks people to separate recycle items by themselves, while due to space restrictions in buildings, Vancouver adheres to a one-bin system (in which someone categorizes the items after collection), and charges for disposing waste. Could that be a solution to Hong Kong’s severe waste management problem?

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